2021 Audi SQ5 spied without camo

At the end of June, the 2021 Audi Q5 debuted. A few details about the SQ5 were provided, but there were no photos of the refreshed crossover available at the time. One of our spy shooters has since caught the SQ5 out and about with hardly a lick of camouflage covering it up.

The differences are minor, but noticeable when set side-by-side. This SQ5 features a similar honeycomb design to its grille, but the S model has a silver surround (an Audi S car element these days), differentiating itself from the black surround on the regular Q5. The side venting on the bumpers feature a similar silver surround where the regular Q5 has black trim. There will be a little SQ5 badge within the honeycomb grille on the SQ5, but in general, these two look very similar from the front. 

Its most obvious “S” characteristic is the quad-tip exhaust exit look. The old SQ5 had some of the most obvious fake exhaust inserts on the market (below right), sitting flush with the car. These tips look real, but upon closer inspection, the actual exhaust appears to still dump out under the car, pointed downward. Regardless, the chrome quad tips are a huge improvement over the weird rear bumper design of the pre-refresh SQ5.

The wheels on this test car are exactly the same design as those seen on the regular Q5 in the first photos released. Maybe that car was equipped with an S Line package of sorts, or it’s just a circumstance of this being a prototype test car. Audi has already said what’s under the hood of the new SQ5, though. It’ll be powered by the same 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 that makes 349 horsepower and 369 pound-feet of torque. Zero to 60 mph is take care of in 4.7 seconds.

We don’t yet know when the SQ5 will bow, but it shouldn’t be very far behind now that the regular Q5 is out.